Where do I practice rolling?

I am trying to beat the floating boss guy u fight after u kill the giant but it seems like if i just block and wait for a opportunity to attack nothing happens and he just takes my stamina down, but i figured that roll is a better option and i was about to get him to half health before he destroyed me. Now I'm just wondering where is a good stop to train for rolling with out getting hurt too much? I tried the hollow infantry but they just have daggers which are too easy since they have very little range. The spear dudes hurt too much for me to practice, So where should i practice? (P.S. 2 bonus questions, is adaptation more important then agility when it comes it roll? what class is best suited for a rolling play-style?)

I'd say practice rolling against the Old Knights that are in Hiede's Tower of Flame. It's right outside of Majula, they are big and slow so it's easy to go under their attacks, and there is a bonfire right next to the first one.

Edit: If you are going to use a dodging play style (like I did) then you might as well unequip your shield and either two hand your weapon or dual wield two weapons. If you aren't blocking with it then it's only extra weight you're carrying around and it's reducing your stamina regen and increasing how fast your stamina drains. The extra weight is also shortening the distance of your rolls.

Farm a bit and put points into ADP. It increases your agility which increases the number of invulnerable frames you get in your roll. That, in turn, would give you a larger window to dodge his attacks and make your life easier.

It's best to practice on the floating dude himself. Each enemy has their own timing and own tells.

I really struggled with floating dude until I worked out his tell and openings. If that isn't for you though then head to the Tower of Flame, back through Majula. The enemies there are a nice intro to the type of wide sweeps you'll be facing.

When rolling, there are two things to consider: When the invincibility frame will occur to avoid damage, and where you will stand-up after the roll.

If you think you can dodge to be outside the range of the attack, do this (though it should be noted that hit-boxes are odd, and seem to change depending on the enemy and the attack, and not just where your character's hit-box is). If you just need to avoid the damage, rolling towards the enemy is usually a good move unless the enemy has a flurry of attacks (in which case to the side is the best option).

Enemies seem to have more flexibility in their attacks though, so sometimes moving to a better position can be worse as the spin that enemies can do to hit you can sometimes catch you off-guard so you don't dodge properly. Also, enemies can cancel out of a combo if any intermediate attack misses, so don't get overconfident when you dodge out of range (as they might retaliate with an attack that can hit further away.

I still think that a shield is a better option most of the time, and most enemies don't really take advantage of the times when one of their hits breaks your defence and leaving you flailing.

Also, don't forget to look around boss environments for good places to attack from (or envirmental traps to attack with... hint, hint).

Wow i guess now it makes sense why I found the pursuer so difficult to dodge as a dw character on my first playthrough. If the parry frames work the same way it would also explain why it's so easy to parry him on consoles. That's kind of fucked up.

Wow i guess now it makes sense why I found the pursuer so difficult to dodge as a dw character on my first playthrough. If the parry frames work the same way it would also explain why it's so easy to parry him on consoles. That's kind of fucked up.

This issue has already been confirmed for weapon durability, as players running the PC version at 60 FPS break their weapons twice as fast, as the weapon spends twice as many frames inside of the enemy.

@dudeglove: Only if you care about your weapons breaking too fast. Frankly, it doesn't really matter for me.

PS: Dodging still works as intended at 60 FPS.

At the start of the game it was really goddamn tedious. Admittedly there was just enough weapon durability between bonfires if I was one-shotting everything or being conservative or using a bow/throwing items, but if I was on Company of Champions I'd probably just have to resort to despawning the enemies on the way to the boss fog.